BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2017: Home

• Use social media as a platform-create an original post or retweet/repost and/or like any posts see you. This year American Library Association is hosting a Rebel Reader Twitter Tournament. Literary prizes will be given each day of the Banned Books Week!
• Prefer eBooks? No problem, download a banned book from your local public library. The Free Library of Philadelphia, for example, has several options for ebooks. Have a public library card, but not sure how to download an ebook? Stop by Manor College Library and we will be happy to help and show you how.
• Participate in a virtual read-out. See example below. For information on how and where to make this happen see here.  

Banned Books Week is September 24-30 2017. The aim is to educate people about their right to read under the first amendment. 

Banned Books Week first began with the American Library Association in 1982 in response to hundreds of complaints, demands, and requests that libraries remove certain books from their shelves.

ALA actively advocates and educates in defense of intellectual freedom—the rights of library users to read, seek information, and speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Intellectual freedom is a core value of the library profession, and a basic right in our democratic society. 

Why are books challenged?

ALA states, Often challenges are motivated by a desire to protect children from “inappropriate” sexual content or “offensive” language. The following were the top three reasons cited for challenging materials as reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom:

1. the material was considered to be 'sexually explicit'
2. the material contained 'offensive language'
3. the materials was 'unsuited to any age group'"

Why does it matter?

Censorship, suppression, and exclusion are serious issues. Librarians and educators support your right to access information, seek varying points and view, and learn from other people's self expressions. 

Explore this map to discover actual cases from 2007-2011. Learn what books were challenged where and why and what the outcome was. See any in your hometown? Or where friends and family may be located? Zoom in to expand the map.

Banned Books Week is  about protecting the first amendment, intellectual freedom, and not censoring what others can and cannot have access to. These are hot topics that have and continue to be in the news. Below are some interesting articles that discuss these controversial ideas.

• Banned Books and Blockbusters
• Banned Books Week Reminds Us That Censorship Is Alive and Well in the Internet Age

• Banned Books Week spotlights battle over censorship

• Criticism, Boycotts, Free Speech and Censorship – Oh My
• Obscenity, Censorship, and the First Amendment

        2016/2015 

• I Am Jazz written by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, and illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas
• Looking for Alaska written by John Green
• Eleanor & Park written by Rainbow Rowell​

        2014

• Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
• The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
• Saga, by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

        2013

• The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

        2012

• Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
• The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
• Beloved, by Toni Morrison

        2011

• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

        2010

• Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
• Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Twilight series, by Stephenie Myers

Here are some more banned book recommendations:

• goodreads
• 12 Banned Books Every Woman Should Read
• Five Banned Books That You Should Read (That You Probably Haven't)